"Kate's very clear on what has and has not happened," People magazine's Kate Coyne said. "For starters, she's adamant that she has in no way been unfaithful, that the allegations that she's had an affair are horrifying to her. And she's also very honest about the fact that she and her husband have hit a serious rough patch, and they've been struggling for a while."

"Kate came to Jon and said, effectively, it's over," Kevin Kreider said. "I don't think typically I would say this, but they're showing America that it's a thriving family. And it's not what they're living."

In the weeks leading up to the season premiere, Jon and Kate Gosselin have appeared repeatedly on covers of celebrity magazines with reports that they have cheated on each other and that their nearly 10-year marriage is on the rocks.

There's a chance they may. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the first episode was not yet in the can, as producers tried to figure out how to incorporate the latest headlines into the show.

"We are in production for season five and moving forward as planned, while fully supporting the family and respecting their needs as they work through this challenging time," a TLC spokeswoman, Laurie Goldberg, said in a statement to ABCNews.com. "This show has always been about a real family dealing with real-life situations, and that will continue to be the case for the new season."

Fortunately for the show's producers, the Gosselins' current real-life situation happens to be of the headline-grabbing kind.

It started two weeks ago with Us Weekly reporting that Jon Gosselin had been in a three-month affair with 23-year-old school teacher Deanna Hummell. The magazine ran a photo of Gosselin sitting in the passenger seat of a car with Hummell behind the wheel.